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I Forge Iron

Wild Runaway


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Work safely guys. I learned a hard lesson a couple years ago by not wearing my face shield when I was doing some grinding with a die grinder. I just needed to touch up on a weld. Can you imagine how much fun it can be to sit in a chair while a doctor digs around in your eye to pull out foreigh materials? The tool he uses looks like one of those curly tools the dentist uses on your teeth. Then you get to wear a patch on your eye for 4-5 days. Use the personal protective gear.

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Wire wheels spend a lot of time figuring out how to throw things back at you... I took a small hook to the face.. a lot of bruising of nose .. eye and teeth.. but nothing else.. the NEXT!! day I bought a face shield... a day late... my teeth still dont feel right.. from 6 months ago...

buffing wheels will do the same thing...

glad you are ok.. your safety gear only needs to work once for it to be worth while...
cliff

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Safety glasses may not have held up to that, but any amount of deflection or deceleration is that much less impact that gets to your body parts. Wire wheels suggest safety glasses AND a full face shield AND standing a bit to the side of the wheel, not directly in front of it. I am glad you came out of the experience with nothing more than a small bruise.

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I have a slowed down wire wheel---takes a bit longer to use; but is a whole lot safer! If something is heavily scaled I'll try to chemically descale it first and then brush it up on the wheel.

Funny thing I was given the double ended 2 slow speeds buffer that I use for the wire wheel. It was designed for the preparation of metallographic samples.

While most smiths are really into the "more power!" bit I once worked with a swordmaker who used an *underpowered* buffer on the grounds that if anything went wrong he could stall it out rather than have it sling a meter of sword blade around the shop. Again it took longer but not much if you factor in a major ER visit several times in your career.

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EYE YI YI! You don't believe in dodging a bullet by much do you? I can't say how happy I am you are relatively unscathed.

Even safety glasses could've made a BIG difference, it's a whole lot harder to push a pair of eye glasses through your eyeball than it is to shove a relatively narrow piece of steel through one.

As has been said, safety glasses a must and a full face shield too on the wire brush or buffing wheels. The only thing better than wearing enough armor to stop a piece of flying steel from skewering you're skull is not getting hit. That means stand OUT OF THE PLANE OF ROTATION! Think of the spray of mud off a bicycle tire, THAT'S the plane of rotation and anything that spins or gets swung has a plane of rotation be it a wire wheel, a splitting axe or your oh so handy favorite smithing hammer. If it get's away it's going flying along it's plane of rotation.

So, stand out of the plane of rotation AND wear enough safety gear to protect you no matter where it goes!

Leaving it stuck in the ceiling over the wire wheel is probably a REALLY good place for it. Not only as a reminder to YOU about what BAD means on this machine but as an object lesson to visitors. When you tell them about safety gear and the plane of rotation all you'll need to do is point up and say, "see?" to make THAT point.

Be safe brother.

Frosty the Lucky.

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I'm thinking the blueprint/ drawing was mislabeled and you were indeed manufacturing Chinese throwing stars. They appear to be very effective.

In high school metal shop circa 1986 , I stood next to my friend on a big Baldor grinder and watched him grind his finger off up to the first knuckle..Please use extreme caution on bench grinders and the like.. Actually that goes for bandsaws/ drill presses and virtually all other tools with moving parts..

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I always keep safety glasses and earplugs in the shop. (and use them!) But I grant you, a full face shield is now on my short list of supplies. I wired my wire wheel and disk sander up to a speed control with a foot switch so at least the power gets cut instantly. Apparently I need to dial the speed down a bit when running the wire wheel. Frosty, I know what you are saying about the plane or rotation. I always stand a bit off to the side, which is why it got my shoulder instead on my neck. I guess I need to get the hang of working from the side. That will take some getting used to!

Thanks for the concerns and the advice. You guys come up with solutions I don't always see.

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It seems like a hundred years ago but it wasn't quite that long ago when I was polishing a length of silver chain and it got caught on the muslin wheel, what a flogging I got. It was a good thing I had my leather jacket on! Now we just throw the chain in a tumbler to polish it up. I think making one of the tumblers that some have made would be a good idea here. Probably slower but safer for sure. Glad that you didn't end up like the plywood!

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